Privacy Policy

Last Updated: August 31, 2010

FindAFranchise is a licensee of the TRUSTe Web Privacy Seal Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to build user's trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers the Web site http://www.FindAFranchise.com/. Because this Web site wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe. When you visit a web site displaying the TRUSTe trustmark, you can expect to be notified of the following information:

• The personally identifiable information collected and which organization is collecting the information
• How the information is used and with whom the information may be shared
• Choices available to you regarding collection, use and distribution of the information
• Types of security procedures in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under the company's control
• How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information

Questions regarding this statement can be submitted via this contact form. Alternatively, please contact us by mail at BizQuest Administration -- Privacy Statement, 181 W. Huntington Dr., Suite 208, Monrovia, CA 91016, or by telephone at 888-280-3815.

If the web site has not responded to your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, please contact TRUSTe at http://www.truste.org/consumers/watchdog_complaint.php. For more information on TRUSTe, please go to http://www.truste.org.

FindAFranchise's Privacy Statement

This privacy statement covers the website http://www.FindAFranchise.com/. By accessing, using or registering with FindAFranchise's web site, you accept and agree to FindAFranchise's Privacy Policy. FindAFranchise provides a variety of online services to assist individuals and brokers with buying and selling businesses and franchises. FindAFranchise values your privacy, feedback and candor very highly. Any user information we collect is considered private and we do not use it or share it except as permitted herein, without the user's permission. We use this personal information at FindAFranchise to provide the best quality service possible. The following privacy statement summarizes FindAFranchise's protection and use of any personal information provided by visitors to the FindAFranchise site.
This policy does not apply to any public area of FindAFranchise's web site or services. In the event you submit personally identifiable information to contact another member, contact a lister about a listing, create a listing, add a contact on a listing, such information becomes publicly available and FindAFranchise is not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit to these services, forums, listings, or persons.

Information Collected by FindAFranchise:

FindAFranchise collects user information from several areas of the FindAFranchise site including products; business services; the adding and editing of business and franchise listings; email forms; and any surveys or contests that FindAFranchise may sponsor. FindAFranchise collects individual user search activity for statistical, archival, and business purposes. FindAFranchise collects financial information (such as billing address, credit card number, expiration date) for billing payment and credit card authorization purposes. FindAFranchise may track the IP address of a user's computer or place a "cookie" in the browser files of a user's computer. This is required by FindAFranchise services to provide automated features.

Use of Information Collected:

Collected information helps FindAFranchise better understand its users' needs in order to improve its product and service offerings. Email addresses are used to communicate with members through the BizQuest/FindAFranchise Franchise Newsletters (weekly email news summaries); Promotional emails; Partner emails and for site administration purposes. Users may be deleted from Newsletters, Promotional email and Partner email lists at their request. Personal information may be used to contact users for the purpose of research, product development, marketing, or customer service, if the user has opted to receive such communication. User search activity is collected and analyzed and may be utilized by FindAFranchise in the aggregate or in the abstract for a variety of business purposes. Financial information is used to bill users for products and services purchased. Within FindAFranchise, only accounting managers have access to the credit card account information. This information is not shared with anyone outside of FindAFranchise. IP address and cookie log data is analyzed to better understand traffic flows and user preferences.

Use of Email Tools:

You may NOT use the Request Free Information form or other email services that we offer to send spam (i.e. unsolicited commercial email) or otherwise send content that would violate FindAFranchise's Terms and Conditions. We may monitor, track or save the use of this feature, but will be under no obligation to monitor, track or save these email messages sent from these tools. If you send an email using the Email a Listing to a Friend service to an email address that is not registered in our system, we do not use that email address for any purpose other than to send your email, and for us to automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the site. FindAFranchise stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and for tracking the success of our referral program. We also do not rent or sell these email addresses of un-registered users.

Shared information:

Though FindAFranchise makes every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site.

FindAFranchise allows users to share contact information with one another via its Request Free Information service. With Request Free Information users can submit their contact information to franchises and business opportunities about which they wish receive more information. This contact information is then shared with the users who have franchise listings from which the information has been requested. Unless required by law as detailed in this section or a user specifically takes action as discussed in this paragraph, FindAFranchise does not share individual user search activity information and such activity information remains private to the individual user and to FindAFranchise.

FindAFranchise shares information with its partners for the purpose of providing related services in which we deem our users have interest. The use that FindAFranchise's partners make of customer information will not exceed FindAFranchise's use of the data. Key billing information (such as credit card number, expiration date and dollar amount) gathered from users making online purchases of products or services is shared with PayPal, our credit card processing partner, in order to authorize charges to the credit card. FindAFranchise also uses third party providers to perform email and postal mailings on behalf of FindAFranchise, but this information (such as name, address and email) is confidential and is not used by the provider for any other purpose.

FindAFranchise does not rent or lease user information to any third party, except as disclosed here. From time to time, FindAFranchise may obtain information (such as electronic mail addresses) from third party providers. It is our goal to only contact individuals who we believe may have a legitimate business interest in FindAFranchise based on their membership or participation in other organizations or web sites, and who have indicated a willingness to be contacted for this purpose. While FindAFranchise endeavors to work with other sites and companies with a similar respect for user privacy, FindAFranchise cannot be responsible for the privacy practices of other sites.

Please be aware that in the event FindAFranchise merges with a third party, or in the event all or substantially all of FindAFranchise's assets are acquired by a third party, customer information, including personally identifiable information, will be shared and/or transferred to such third party. The information may only be used or shared by such third parties for the primary purpose for which the information was originally collected. If such third parties, or if FindAFranchise for its own business needs, desire to use the personally identifiable information for another purpose, you will be notified prior to the information being used for a new purpose, and you will have the opportunity to opt out of such new use of your personally identifiable information.

Security of personal information:

FindAFranchise's clients and their personal information are considered to be FindAFranchise's greatest asset and thus their privacy is treated with the utmost regard and respect. FindAFranchise takes every reasonable precaution to secure personal information within both its computers and its physical premises.

We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If you have any questions about security on our Web site, please contact us.

Cookies:

Cookies are used on this site. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user's computer for record-keeping purposes.

We use both session cookies and persistent cookies. We use session cookies to make it easier for you to use our site and to enable certain specialized functionality that requires maintaining information about your session. A session cookie is not stored on your hard disk and expires when you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard disk for an extended period of time. You can remove persistent cookies by following the directions in your Internet browser's "help" files.

We do not store in persistent cookies any personally identifiable information you submit while on our site.

Due to the functionality provided by our site, the use of cookies is required. If you reject cookies, our site will not perform properly.

Third-Party Advertising Companies

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. The third-party advertising technology that we use on this Web site uses information derived from your visits to this site to target advertising within this site. In addition, our advertisers may use other third-party advertising technology to target advertising on this site and other sites. In the course of advertisements being served to you, a unique third-party cookie or cookies may be placed in your browser. In addition, we may use Web beacons, provided by third-party advertising companies, to help manage and optimize our online advertising. Web beacons enable us to recognize a browser's cookie when a browser visits this site, and to learn which banner ads bring users to our Web site. To "opt-out," please click here or visit http://www.networkadvertising.org/consumer/opt_out.asp.

Testimonials:

We post customer testimonials on our web site which may contain personally identifiable information such as the customer's name. We do obtain the customer's consent to post their name along with their testimonial prior to any posting of such testimonial.

Opting-out, editing, updating or deleting personal information:

FindAFranchise utilizes email as a vital and primary communication channel with registered users and customers. As a registered user/customer, you hereby acknowledge and grant FindAFranchise the permission to communicate with you via email (as well as other communication channels such as phone and fax) for any purposes FindAFranchise determines to be relevant including, but not limited to, system messages, product updates, service announcements and other marketing messages. FindAFranchise will use best efforts to honor customers request to opt out of marketing messages, but under no circumstances will FindAFranchise have any liability for sending any email to its registered users/customers.

Users who do not wish to receive marketing emails including the FindAFranchise Newsletters, FindAFranchise Promotional Emails, or Sponsor Emails are requested to contact FindAFranchise Client Services, or select the opt-out option that is available on all email correspondence. We also send our users site and service announcement updates. Members are not able to un-subscribe from service announcements, which contain important information about service notices and responsibilities. FindAFranchise occasionally communicates with its users via email and phone to provide information about requested services and regarding issues related to their account. It is important to note that this communication is not used for marketing or promotional purposes. Requesting the deletion of certain types of user information may prevent users from accessing some web site features.

You may correct or update your personally identifiable information by going to the area of the site where you submitted the information, and following the instructions to view, change or delete the information.

Credit card information submitted to FindAFranchise is typically used for a one-time charge to your account, and subsequent orders for renewals require users to resubmit the credit information. (An exception: Franchise Directory advertising is automatically renewed each month, using the original credit information submitted.) Therefore, for added security, any credit card information submitted to FindAFranchise is not accessible for review or modification by signing on to your ad. If you have questions regarding the credit card information used in ordering your products or services, please contact us or at 888-280-3815.

Changes to this Privacy Statement:

If FindAFranchise decides to change its privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

FindAFranchise reserves the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If FindAFranchise makes material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or by means of a notice on our home page.